There is no legal definition for “hate group,” which is why even the FBI does not, cannot, designate “hate groups,” but somehow a private fundraising organization can?

Everyone has their own definition of what a “hate group” should be, but without a legal, codified definition the term “hate group” means whatever the user says it means and that’s not good enough.

The SPLC has no more authority to designate “hate groups” than does the SPCA.

You’ve cited two of the SPLC’s primary fundraising tools, the Hate Map™ and the list of hate “incidents,” which you’ve misidentified as hate “crime” incidents, which the vast majority are not. A closer look at the numbers quickly illustrates the spurious nature of the data.

Of the 1,018 “hate groups” designated by the SPLC’s public relations chief, Mark Potok, fully 247 of them are no affiliated with any known city or town. Mr. Potok cannot locate these alleged groups on any map, including his own.

That’s 25% of the total right off the top.

You’ve noted that the Hate Map™ is interactive and that users can click on a given state to see the “hate groups” located there. The state of Georgia is a perfect example.

In March of 2011 Mr. Potok added 20 chapters of something he calls “the Georgia Militia” to that state’s map, but he cannot locate 18 of them. They simply float out there in limbo, padding the numbers.

See it for yourselves:

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map#s=GA

There are 18 blank slots marked “Georgia Militia.” THIS is hard data?

In many states the percentage of homeless “hate groups” runs as high as 60%, 80% and even an incredible 100%.

http://wp.me/pCLYZ-ce

You mention the 247 “hate incidents” to date listed on the SPLC website, but again, if you actually look at the numbers you see they really don’t add up.

First of all, “hate incidents” are not “hate crimes” and Mr. Potok admits, as you mention in your footnote, that his numbers come from newspaper reports and the SPLC does no investigation of its own.

At the top of the incident list is a link to a downloadable spreadsheet describing each incident. If you you download it and sort it by incident category you find that the largest single category is described as “Legal Developments.”

Legal developments refer to events that have transpired AFTER an incident, often YEARS after the incident.

For example, on 1/21/12, Daniels Enders and Nicolas Comis, of Bass River, NJ, pled guilty to bias intimidation for burning a cross near a black family’s residence in February 2011.

How can this possibly be considered a “hate incident” when the actual intimidation took place nearly a year earlier? How is pleading in court a “hate incident”? Why should this be counted as an incident in 2012?

But wait, there’s more…

On 6/27/12, Comis and Enders were sentenced to 270 days and 180 days in prison respectively for burning that cross near a black family’s residence in 2011.

That’s TWO “hate incidents” for 2012 based on events from 2011, and if nothing else, they prove that the system works.

There are 108 “legal developments” on the 2012 list, or 38% of the total. In 2011, 112 of the 312 “incidents” listed were legal developments. That’s one out of three!

What do these bogus numbers do to your extrapolation that predicts a record year of hate crimes?

http://wp.me/pCLYZ-bs

I apologize for the length of this post, but so many people are taken in by SPLC fundraising propaganda that I feel compelled to expose it whenever I can.

I don’t expect anyone to take my word for it. Every single fact I’ve cited comes from the very sources you cite on the SPLC’s own web site. All I ask is that people simply look at the numbers themselves and decide for themselves whether or not the numbers are accurate.

These bogus numbers are the number one factor accounting for the fact that the SPLC currently takes in more than $106,000 donor dollars a day. That’s more than $4,400 an hour and does not include the tens of millions of tax free interest generated by their quarter-billion dollar endowment fund.

http://wp.me/pCLYZ-d3

The SPLC has an extremely compelling financial stake in playing fast and loose with “hate” numbers.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/04/white-supremacists-running-for-political-office-in-2012-in-growing-numbers.html

Also, many feel that the post 9/11 environment is not conducive to militant activism and they have focused on attaining political power (mayors, local reps, etc.). The recently murdered head of the NSM, Jeff Hall, for example, ran for a local water board and got nearly 1/3 of the vote.